1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an audio response equipment. (sound resources) management system for a telephone switching network.
In a telephone switching network, various types of notices and/or services through speech are provided to users. With a view to realizing efficient services through speech (hereinafter, referred to as speech services), improvement in disposition of sound resources is desired.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a telephone switching network, various types of speech services are provided to users such as a time signal announcement message, a weather forecast announcement message, a congestion announcement message, an out-of-service area announcement message for a portable terminal, a dial Q2 for providing speech information and telephone voting, and the telephone switching network is expected to be used for further various types of services.
There are several methods for disposing sound source resources in order to realize conventional speech services and they will be described below by referring to FIGS. 18 to 20.
FIG. 18 is an example constructed such that an audio response equipment is concentratedly disposed at a center. In the figure, LS units are subscribers"" or local switching units each accommodating a number of subscribers"" telephone sets, TS""s are transit switching units and an ARE (Audio Response Equipment) is a sound source device (or an audio response device) and in a description below, it is referred simply to a sound source or a sound source (ARE). In this construction example, the sound source (ARE) is connected to the speech center provided at a higher level than the plurality of transit switching units (TS). The. subscribers"" telephones are each connected to the respective transit switching units (TS) via the respective local switching units (LS units), and then the sound source (ARE) is accessed via the speech center for supplying speech notices to the users of the subscribers"" telephones. This system is characterized in that since the sound source device is concentratedly disposed, it is easy to manage the sound source, including the updating thereof, to provide complicated speech services, whereby the sound source can be disposed economically. However, this system is not suitable for use with high frequency and giving simple guidance (for instance, an announcement message for notifying a congested state) in that if there occurs a failure in the speech center, a large number of users will be affected and that a repeater network is used, on a call-by-call basis, from the local switching units (LS units).
FIG. 19 is an example constructed such that a single sound source is disposed so as to be distributed to a plurality of local switching units. In the figure, an LS unit is a local switching unit as in the case of the example shown in FIG. 18. In this example, a sound source device (ARE) is connected to the local switching unit (LS unit), and a plurality of subscribers (for instance, 60 subscribers) are connected to a single connecting point to the sound source (ARE). In this construction, a speech service can be provided without using a repeater network, and a direct notice is sent to a subscriber, this being suitable for a congestion announcement message. However, since the sound source is provided for each of the local switching units (LS units), this construction is disadvantageous in that considerable labor hours are needed when the speech in each sound source is to be changed or when new speech is to be added in each sound source. In addition, since the sound source continues to repeat the same speech, the construction is also disadvantageous in that the speech is not automatically started from the beginning thereof and hence the user hears the speech from the middle portion thereof when he/she is connected to the sound source (ARE). Thus, this construction is suitable for an announcement message providing no problem to the user even when he/she hears from the middle thereof (for instance, an announcement message for providing a time announcement).
FIG. 20 is an example constructed such that a plurality of sound sources are connected via a local switching unit to a plurality of subscriber""s telephones on a one-to-one basis. In the figure, an LS unit and an ARE designate devices similar to those used in FIGS. 18 and 19, and a sound source (ARE) is individually connected to a connecting point of each circuit of the local switching unit (LS unit). In this system, a speech service can be provided to the user without using a repeater network and a speech can automatically be returned to the beginning thereof every time a call is received or on a call-by-call basis. However, this construction is disadvantageous in that, similar to the system shown in FIG. 19, considerable labor hours are needed to manage the sound source devices and that the sound source devices cannot be disposed in an economical fashion.
FIG. 21 shows a state in which speech services get congested. In a construction shown in FIG. 21, in a case where a number of call originating terminals A to E are going to receive a speech service all together, the call originating terminal E encounters a shortage of resource for a sound source, and it cannot receive a speech service. If the requested speech service is charged for, there is a problem in that when a subscriber encounters a shortage in resource for a sound source, a common carrier will fail to collect a charge for a call made from the subscriber.
In the system described with reference to FIG. 20, it is possible to avoid a congestion by increasing the number of the sound sources disposed in the local switching unit uniformly, but there remains a problem of a tremendous investment in equipment and facilities being required.
In the system shown in FIG. 19, the sound source is disposed for each local switching unit (LS unit) and this causes a problem of labor hours being required when the sound sources are to be modified. In addition, each sound source device continues to repeat the same speech and therefore since the user hears the speech from the middle thereof and the speech cannot automatically be returned to the beginning thereof when he/she is connected to the sound source device, the system is not suitable for a case in which the speech needs to be returned to the beginning thereof upon connection.
In the system shown in FIG. 18, since only a single sound source is disposed at the speech center, a congestion can be avoided economically. In this case, however, since a local congestion affects the traffic of the overall network, the number of speech services that are affected by failure at the speech center will be increased. Thus, there is a problem of lack of stability of a telephone switching network.
An object of the present invention is to provide a sound source management system that can solve the above problems and which can realize the avoidance of a momentary resource shortage in each of local switching units economically and without affecting the traffic of the overall network.
To attain the above object, there is provided, according to the present invention, a sound source management system for a telephone switching network, comprising: a sound source management data storing unit for storing information on sound sources of an own local switching unit and the other local switching units; and an idle sound source detection unit for detecting an idle sound source which is not being used as a sound source; wherein, in response to a sound source capturing request from a subscriber, the idle sound source detection unit refers to the sound source management data storing unit so as to detect an idle sound source connected to the own switching unit or connected to the other switching units, and when an idle sound source is detected, the detected sound source is captured so that a sound from the captured sound source is sent to the subscriber.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sound source management system for a telephone switching network, comprising: a plurality of sound sources; a call processing unit for processing a call from at least one subscriber; and a sound source management data storing unit for storing information representing whether or not each of the sound sources is being used, wherein when the call processing unit detects a call originated from a calling subscriber""s telephone set that requests connection to one of the sound-sources, the call processing unit judges, through the utilization of the sound source management data storing unit, whether or not a speech is being sent out from the sound source identical to that required; and as a result of the judgement, if the speech is being sent out from the required sound source to another subscriber""s telephone set, the call processing unit establishes a path between the call originating subscriber""s telephone set and the required sound source in addition to the path between the another subscriber""s telephone set and the required sound source.